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 Guide GearĀ® 30 LED Lantern with Case By: Guide Gear Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 20 More Information Pretty good lantern  On: 2008-05-04It almost feels too cheap, but for the price, its a great lantern. The dual brightness settings are a nice feature, but I find myself using the brighter setting more often. I wont have the distance of a gas lantern, but its great to use in a tent (safer too). If you need something to light up a greater area (like in a campsite) gas lanterns are still the way to go. power outage hero  On: 2008-02-10I havent needed to use my lantern yet, but before I purchased it (the reason why!) I had occasion to borrow one like it during a 3-day power outage. It was great and much safer than candles or oil lamps which I had used in the past. Not as bright as I expected...  On: 2007-12-12If youre expecting to light a room, this isnt the lamp for you. I was a little disappointed, but not enough to return it... Great Light On: 2007-11-23I have two of these lights and they provide a good light when I lose power. Gripe: The battery cover is hard to unscrew, I had to use a strap wrench to remove it,on the initial battery installation. Great, energy efficient camping lantern!!! On: 2007-10-29My wife and I just got back from a camping trip which was our inaugural use of this lantern. Not only was it more visible at night than nearby propane ones, it also didnt blanket the campsite with too much glaring light. It didnt attract insects and it easily was moved from being a campsite lantern to an "in tent" lantern. Having some knowledge of LED technology, the fact that these LEDs will last up to a theoretical life of 100,000 hrs makes this an amazing value. Four D cell batteries and potentially continuous light for several days isnt something lanterns of the past could claim. Im not sure of the posts regarding handle issues. From what I can tell, this is a sturdily built little lantern. I especially like the fact that it comes with a protective travel case which can store a full back up set of D cell batteries. All in all, definitely one of the best camping technologies Ive purchased. A good LED lantern On: 2007-04-13A friend and I bought 9 of these lanterns and the only problem was a bad latch on one case, which was quickly resolved. A new set of batteries lasted 28 days 24/7. The light is typical for LEDs. suitable for navigation - but not reading On: 2007-01-21Id hoped that with 30 LEDs that this would be good for reading in the dark. However, with the LEDs distributed around the central column it does not provide enough light in any one direction for reading. Otherwise, light weight, well built - a very good lantern for general illumination. An Excellent Little Lantern On: 2007-01-17This is the third LED lantern I have bought and it is definitely the best of the three. It is very bright in comparison to the two previously bought and it seems to be durable. I had it on top a TV which at about 7 feet in the air, when it fell to the floor with no adverse affect. LEDs offer the advantage of not wasting energy creating heat and so are vastly superior to any other form of electronic lamp. The only reason I dont give this unit 5 stars is that the switch, which is located on the top of the lamp, is difficult to work. A minor redesign could easily remedy that problem. I bought this lantern in anticipation of a major ice storm that was moving into our area last week. I expect it will be my ace-in-the-hole for many years to come. Most likely I will buy at least one more before I am done. I would recommend this lamp to anyone wanting a good alternative to kerosene, gas, or flourescent lanterns. No mess, no stink, and it should be fairly cheap to feed. An Excellent Little Lantern On: 2007-01-16This is the third LED lantern I have bought and it is definitely the best of the three. It is very bright in comparison to the two previously bought and it seems to be durable. I had it on top a TV which at about 7 feet in the air, when it fell to the floor with no adverse affect. LEDs offer the advantage of not wasting energy creating heat and so are vastly superior to any other form of electronic lamp. The only reason I dont give this unit 5 stars is that the switch, which is located on the top of the lamp, is difficult to work. A minor redesign could easily remedy that problem. I bought this lantern in anticipation of a major ice storm that was moving into our area last week. I expect it will be my ace-in-the-hole for many years to come. Most likely I will buy at least one more before I am done. I would recommend this lamp to anyone wanting a good alternative to kerosene, gas, or flourescent lanterns. No mess, no stink, and it should be fairly cheap to feed. Underwhelming Light, Cheap Plastic Handles, Long Life  On: 2006-12-25I own 4 of these. They all have light output that is usuable as a nightlight-type lamp. The handles on two units broke the first time I used them. For the number of LEDs I expected more light. Yet, the light that does shine from the units is diffused in a way so that its actually difficult to read from, and hard on the eyes. The one thing Ill say is that they will shine for more two days with enough light to use in an emergency (with fully-charged batteries). If you want something to use for more than a nightlight, Id pass on these. If, you want high-quality casings, pass on these. If you dont care about those two issues, then, the long-life of the light that is put out may give you reason to pick them up. In hindsight, I would not buy these again at the price I paid. Guide Gear 30 LED Lantern On: 2006-11-10This lantern is a nifty compact lightsource. It shines an ample radius of light in pitch dark conditions. The small size is a real plus. A constructive suggestion; improve the interior and the closure of the case. I highly recommend this lantern. Great lantern for family camping On: 2006-11-05I bought this item for a family camping trip this past summer. Overall, we were very happy with the lantern. It was rugged enough for our needs, and the amount of light it produces is excellent. We read by it, and also used it to light our whole camping area. Definitely recommended. Looks OK so far... On: 2006-09-09Guide Gear stuff is generally pretty good, and the price is right. I got this lantern for the inevitable Chicago summer power failure, which didnt happen this year. It seems adequate, and I like the LED idea - a heat source is not what you want when its 95 outside and the AC is dead. :=( Im sure it will fulfill that purpose, but it seems a bit flimsy as stated above for an expedition into the wilderness. Worth the money, and the case is very good - if a bit bulky. I wouldnt rely on this as my only emergency light source. But then, Im into survival redundancy. Redundancy. Red... Oh you get it :=)) Great lantern, but handle broke second time used On: 2006-07-06This is a great LED lantern. I gives a lot of light, and the batteries last forever. I once accidently left it on for two days in the case, and there was no dimming of the batteries at all after 48 hours. However, the plastic handle broke the second time I used the lantern in a way that cant be fixed. I would recommend that you purchase the aluminum version of this lantern ASIN: B000F44Q7Y instead. Great lantern, but handle broke second time used On: 2006-07-05This is a great LED lantern. I gives a lot of light, and the batteries last forever. I once accidently left it on for two days in the case, and there was no dimming of the batteries at all after 48 hours. However, the plastic handle broke the second time I used the lantern in a way that cant be fixed. I would recommend that you purchase the aluminum version of this lantern ASIN: B000F44Q7Y instead. keeps going and going On: 2006-04-06i am buying a second unit.We went camping all season and its year 2 with the same batteries.Its an odd lite to look at but a second should light the whole campsite. Known defective merchandise shipped  On: 2005-12-21The white box had "send to QA" written on it in ink. When I took the lantern out of the case the handle pin was laying in the case. On the instruction sheet someone had circled the defective area with a highlighter pen. Obviously, this was a returned product that found its way back out the door. I found the u-shaped locking piece. I tried to replace the pin, but every time I moved the handle the locking piece would pop out. Very poor handle attachment. I also dont see how it could be waterproof where the handle is connected! Poor Customer Service & Flimsy Design On: 2005-11-14My issues are not so much with the lantern itself, but with the supplier, Sportmans Guide..... The lantern is NOT stocked by Amazon. When I received the lantern, a plastic pin attaching the handle to lantern was broken. This defect was mentioned by another reviewer, Outglare. The latches on the lantern case were also rather flimsy. I decided to exchange the lantern and waited for a pre-paid mailing label before I sent it back. After several weeks I received my "exchange". I noticed the "re-sealed" box and imagine my surprise when I received the same lantern with the broken handle back again. I have given up on the "high tech" LED solution and next time Ill buy a good old Coleman fluorescent at my local Walmart. flimsily made, but ok compared to other lanterns On: 2005-11-11The nondescript white box received prominently displays a sticker labeled "Made in China," recalling shoddy products sold at discount prices. Mind you, I have no problems with products from China, but if you think of the products that you may have purchased where theres a little sticker, that is not even part of the box label, that says "Made in ___" you expect a cheaply made product. The latch that hold the plastic case shut is rather flimsy, and one of them broke after 2 days. One of the pins that hold the handle to the lantern broke after 4 days. All in all, this product just feels very brittle and easy to break. Pretty much every component of the lantern seems very flimsy. I have seen some of the other LED or fluorescent lanterns, and this is probably the brightest of the lot. But the light projected is not uniform. Like Michael N. Trevor says in his review, what you get are little white dots of light that project radially out from the lantern. So if you hold up the lantern to a wall, you see a bunch of horizontally spaced white spots adjacent to eachother. This is kind of annoying, since you want to use this as a lantern, and not a multi-headed flashlight. If the object to be illuminated is at the same horizontal level as the lantern, youre more or less fine. But what if you want to illuminate something that is one or more feet above or below the level of the lantern? Imagine: you put the lantern on a bench, and you can only light up things that are at the bench level, and only if they fall within one of the white spots. Or, you walk with the lantern in front of you at night, but you have to tilt the lantern to actually light up the path. I own a Coleman white gas lantern, and of course there is no comparison on the brightness differences. But for indoor usage, or just casually talking outside, this lantern would be ok. PROS: -not really cheap or expensive -pretty bright light compared to other battery-powered lanterns -the case had these 4 little indentations where you can squeeze in 4 D cell batteries. Pretty cool - you dont have to worry about battery leakage. -if you twist the lantern around rapidly, you can get a strobe effect -doesnt smell like kerosene/gas lanterns, and is silent and cool to the touch CONS: -cheap materials (hinges made of flexible plastic [I could indent the plastic "bolt" that held the handle to the body with my fingernail]) -the "white spots" phenomenon addendum: just realized that Realtree® 30 LED Lantern might be the exact same product, cheaper, and with more stuff in combo package. First LED lanterns I picked up On: 2005-09-28While I cant comment on all LED lanterns, this one does the job great. On the 1/2 setting I can still read in the same room with the lantern about 5 feet away. At the 30 LED setting it lights up most of my 1 bedroom apartment. We could read on the couch (not ideal, but possible) with the lantern in our bedroom adjacent to the room. Last year we dealt with table lanterns that took the same amount of D batteries that you had to be sitting next to them to read. Plus the batteries died overnight. The cases are great on these, complete with storage for the 4 D batteries. I bought two, along with a Coleman Grill/Stove. I am in S. Florida, hurricane central. First LED lanterns I picked up On: 2005-09-27While I cant comment on all LED lanterns, this one does the job great. On the 1/2 setting I can still read in the same room with the lantern about 5 feet away. At the 30 LED setting it lights up most of my 1 bedroom apartment. We could read on the couch (not ideal, but possible) with the lantern in our bedroom adjacent to the room. Last year we dealt with table lanterns that took the same amount of D batteries that you had to be sitting next to them to read. Plus the batteries died overnight. The cases are great on these, complete with storage for the 4 D batteries. I bought two, along with a Coleman Grill/Stove. I am in S. Florida, hurricane central. Best Lantern I've Found On: 2005-09-09Ive tried several lanterns and like this one the best. It is one of the smallest ones available, yet it is long-lasting and takes only 4 batteries, rather than the 8 that other long-lasting lanterns use. I compared this to one that takes 8 batteries, is bigger and heavier, uses flourescent bulbs and doesnt last as many days. This lit up the room just as much. Perfect for Florida. Practical, effective, and useful On: 2005-08-11This lantern really does work. While it does not produce the brilliant white light of a kerosene pressure lantern it does produce a white light by which you can read and write. I have used two for over a month both running 10 to 12 hours a night i.e. 300 plus hours on the low setting and have yet to change the batteries. In addition they are essentially heat free. Living in the tropics and not having to sit next to hundreds of degrees of blazing hot lantern is cool and comfortable. I previously read a review saying these are weak and dim. It is true this is not a hundred watt lamp, but it is brighter than a dietz type hurricane lantern. The critisism that there are light and dark areas in the surrounding light is also true but this can be avoided by a simple change at manufacture. LED "bulbs" are made with a curved dome tip that "focuses" the light directionally. If the tips are ground and polished flat each little LED then functions like a mini flood light and would resolve this issue. For those people in the third world dependant upon kerosene lanterns this lantern is a practical alternative. The injuries death and destruction caused by fires caused by kerosene lanterns alone make this lantern worth it for safety alone. With rural kerosene prices reaching 3,4, $5.00 a gallon its long opperation time per set of batteries make it cost effective as well. Paired with solar rechargeable batteries it becomes a total winner. Michael N Trevor Majuro Marshall Islands +fires |